Follow me as I train to run the New York City marathon on November 1, 2009!

Monday, June 8, 2009

i heart team for kids!

hello, and happy monday! sorry i've been mia the past few days, what a crazy busy weekend! it was jam packed with lots of running (of course!), wedding planning, and seeing friends.

friday was a nice night in. the fiance and i ordered in dinner and watched a movie. have any of you ever seen memento? it's from a while back, but neither of us had seen it. it was only ok, a little disappointing in the end though.

dinner was takeout from an asian place near my old apartment. it was rainy and yuck, and i decided to go with the veggie noodle soup. i ate about half, and the veggies were delish.

i also had some cheese and crackers on the side.

i'm glad i had a relaxing night, because on saturday, i had my first team for kids training run. my five month journey to 26.2 has officially begun! it's so crazy to think i'm actually starting to train for the marathon, because it's something i've been thinking and talking about for a really long time.

the training run on saturday was a nice and easy 4 mile run. before we began, we all gathered at a meeting spot where we got a little introduction from the head coach, met all of our coaches, and heard from the executive director of team for kids, as well as the president of nyrr, mary wittenberg.

everyone was so friendly, welcoming and enthusiastic, which makes me really excited for the next five months.

then, we broke out into three group levels for the run. beginner, intermediate, and experienced. at first i went with the intermediate group, because honestly i was intimidated by the small amount of people in the experienced group (a handful of men, who looked like they could be the super-fast type). i eventually switched to the experienced group though, when they told us about the pace of the groups.

we had two coaches, who were really great. they talked with us throughout the run, and encouraged us to ask questions. i think they'll be a great resource and will provide good advice throughout our training. one of them even was a professionally competitive runner who was at the world champion level (i think) for the 800 meter.

the run went well, we finished in about 31 minutes and afterwards we stretched. we also did a short warmup and stretched before the run, and they told us about the important difference between active, or dynamic stretching before a run, and static stretching after a run.

the active/dynamic stretching incorporates movement, so you're not pulling (and potentially tearing) your muscles. after a run, your muscles are already warmed up, so it's ok to incorporate both active/dynamic and static stretching.

with team for kids, we have runs 3 times a week- a long run on saturday, and evening runs on mondays and wednesdays. this week, i'm skipping monday and wednesday, since i ran both sat. and sun. (a 10k on sat.) and i also have nyrr running class on tuesday night.

i definitely don't want to over do it, so for now i'll go to the saturday runs, and maybe next week start going one evening as well.

with the start of team for kids, and with my official acceptance to the marathon that i received friday, i am now officially training for a marathon!

stay tuned for my re-cap of the women's mini 10k, which i ran on sunday, and more about my weekend...